It's time to disrupt sexism, say startups

In a country where a law on workplace sexual harassment came into force only in 2013, more than 15 years after...Read More

Over the past few months, women entrepreneurs and startup employees have been speaking out on social media about sexual harassment in the startup world. Workplace sexual harassment and gender discrimination is not unheard of in corporate India but with startups, lack of awareness of the law, an informal work culture and poor gender diversity complicate matters. Disruption may be the mainstay of their game, but they're slow to break gender stereotypes.Recently , author Rashmi Bansal and another woman director made allegations of inappropriate conduct against investor and founder of Seedfund Advisors Mahesh Murthy . Earlier, FrshDay .in founder Wamika Iyer and Pooja Chauhan, co-founder of Vayuz, shared chat conversations with Murthy that had made them uncomfortable. Allegations against TVF's cofounder Arunabh Kumar and ScoopWhoop's Suparn Pandey followed. There have also been reports of a sexist work culture at global startups like Uber.In a country where a law on workplace sexual harassment came into force only in 2013, more than 15 years after the Supreme Court formulated guidelines on the same, most employers are unaware about mandatory compliance. Startups often say they do not have the bandwidth or financial means to put in place mechanisms to protect women employees.“When it comes to policies, most startups wing it. Some of the basic stuff -as simple as leave policy -don't exist in most startups and I end up advising them to do that the minute they start hiring extra team members as it makes it a fair process,“ says Vijay Anand, founder, The Startup Centre, an accelerator.In a startup, everything is driven by passion and the team wants to prioritise work. Anand says he often hears women employees volunteering to skip maternity leave and work from home. “Building a startup, you are treading new terrain. Strict rules can sometimes come in the way ,“ he says, adding that the enforcement of no work emails post 6pm and a 35hour work week in France have negatively impacted the startup ecosystem there. “You are a scrappy startup with limited manpower and are trying to disrupt large players.That requires overtime -both mentally and workwise,“ he says.That's not an excuse, and startups are realising it. Vishal Kedia, co-founder, Complykaro, which helps companies comply with legal obligations, says since women started speaking up in the last few weeks, startups have come to them for help.“The vision of the law is not to have a policy or a committee to deal with a complaint. The idea is to prevent a complaint in the first place,“ he says. “Startups are unaware that training and sensitisation is mandated by law, an annual report is to be filed. This is a mandate irrespec tive of the form of organisation or the size of the workforce,“ he says.Compliance is low across the country. According to a study by Complykaro and Institute of Company Secretaries of India, 72% of companies claimed to be compliant with anti-harassment laws, but only 1.62% actually were. The study found that 36% did not have an external member on the internal complaints committee to ensure impartiality as mandated by the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.Startup founders say it's important to create an inclusive and safe company culture. At AI startup Mad Street Den, founded by husband and wife Anand Chandrasekaran and Ashwini Asokan, the office location was chosen giving thought to access to day care. “We started the company with a 50:50 gender ratio and have consciously maintained it as we have grown. When we faced an incident of misconduct, we asked the employee to leave. We do not entertain any bad behaviour,“ says Asokan.She says the number of women in an office can influence the way the culture opens up. “It ensures that conversations are not skewed. You don't wake up one day and decide to have a policy ,“ she says.When agri-marketing platform Ninjakart started in July 2014, male employees were responsible for dropping female colleagues when work stretched till 3am. “Within four months, we had a policy . We have a flat hierarchical structure to prevent men from having undue influence on a female colleague's career. We have outsiders on our anti-harass ment committee, so that they can report incidents without fear of retribution,“ says Thirukumaran Nagarajan, whose startup has a 10% female workforce.At Zerodha, which has had an anti-sexual harassment policy in place from the day of founding, reporting comes first. “We don't believe in a hush-hush culture. We've had a lot of young people dating, getting married, breaking up. We are clear that workplace relationships have to be consensual,“ says Hanan Delvi, chief people officer, Zerodha.When startups don't have clear HR policies, it can be a deal-breaker for some investors. “A sexual harassment scandal or even allegations send up a red flag. No investor would come close and existing investors are likely to drop them,“ said Pankaj Daga of Chennai Angels.For Krish Subramanian, co-founder of billing service provider Chargebee, the issue is not having enough women in leadership positions. “We are compliant with all the laws but it all becomes truly effective only when there are go-to folks, women at all levels of leadership. We have to acknowledge the need for women's representation, and actively look it and ensure their inclusion,“ he says. “It's important to pay attention and act with empathy. That's what policies are for, not just compliance.“